Plane used in Tomorrow Never Dies badly damaged after crash landing

East Anglian Daily Times - An aircraft featured in the opening scenes of the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" was left badly damaged after being forced to make an emergency landing on the Suffolk/Cambridge border.

The L39-Albatross Jet suffered total engine failure at 1,000 feet after taking off from Duxford Airfield on Saturday afternoon.

Its pilot, 59-year-old Peter Jackson, from Sevenoaks in Kent, was forced to make an emergency landing in fields at Rectory Farm, Ickleton, a mile south of the airfield.

The two-seater jet, formerly used for standard training by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s, landed upright with its nose down causing its under carriage to partially collapse.

Mr Jackson walked away from the incident unhurt and the plane was collected by officials from the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, where it is usually kept.

Saturday`s incident happened at around 3.20pm and Duxford`s head of marketing Frank Crosby said: "An aircraft usually based the Imperial war Museum was forced to make an emergency landing at farmland near Ickleton, a mile south of the museum. Emergency services reached the scene within minutes and the pilot Peter Jackson, 59, had managed to get out of the aircraft."

He added that the L-39 Albatross, which featured in the opening scene of the James Bond blockbuster Tomorrow Never Dies, suffered total engine failure.

In addition to the airfield`s emergency team getting to the scene, fire crews from Cambridgeshire also attended as a safety precaution, but did not need to take action.

The museum`s director Ted Inman said: "Following other incidents and understanding the concerns of local people we have set up a very deep review of safety precautions at Duxford.

"We want to move forward very quickly and we expect to publish the findings of the review in the next month or two."

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